Real Food Challenge Week 1 Recap

I've gotten off to a slow start in the Real Food Challenge running this month at Not Dabbling In Normal. I find myself missing a few aspects of last month's challenge at Nourished Kitchen. One of the things I find myself missing is the structure. So I've decided to adopt some of last month's structure for my personal challenge this month. Among the things I'll incorporate is the Monday Recap post. I thought I would enjoy the flexibility of NDIN's challenge more than I actually do. I think the reason for this is simply that, at any given moment, I am trying to juggle too many responsibilities. It gets overwhelming. I am serious about making changes in my family's diet. But I am also seriously time-restricted. It was nice to get a daily assignment last month, and know that every Monday I would have to fess up how I did during the week. NDIN is doing a "link party" today. But they also did a Friday recap. I'm not really sure if there is a regular check-in planned or not, so unless I figure out otherwise, I'll just plan to post a recap on Mondays.

That being said, I slacked more than I'm happy about this week. I also had tons and tons of schoolwork to turn in (I'm taking 15 credits this semester). On the upside, I did a better job about planning meals ahead of time and the meals I did plan were in line with our new diet. There were no disasters in the kitchen this week (woot!) and I'm getting into the swing of things with my new way of shopping. On the downside, the meals I didn't plan ended up not being great choices. They could have been worse; but they could have been a lot better.

In one respect, however, I got a "kitchen bonus" of sorts. This week was bulk trash week in my neighborhood. I scored an old-school 12 inch cast iron dutch oven that a neighbor was tossing. I'll post a picture when I've finished cleaning it up. I'm looking forward to trying sourdough bread in it.

I think my big lesson this week was my personal need for kitchen structure in order to stick to a healthy plan. I do a lot of winging it in life, with generally decent results. But the kitchen does not seem to be an area in which I can afford to wing it. That's useful information that, hopefully, I can translate into more success next week.

Also, FYI, the folks at Not Dabbling In Normal have posted a bunch of recipes this week, as well as some awesome photos. Go check them out. It's worth the click.